Who’s That Puffing Down the Track? It’s Thomas!  This adorable steam engine was the perfect centerpiece to a two-year old’s birthday cake and was so much fun to hand-craft!  We even replaced Thomas’ signature number 1 on the engine to a number 2, reflecting the child’s age.

With summer drawing to a quick end, it’s fun to remember some designs that kept with the spirit of the season. This shabby-chic bride wanted an earthly but airy feel to her August wedding, hence the pinwheel theme.  Dozens of hand-crafted pinwheels not only accented their topsy-turvy cake, but were decor of the reception as well!   The concept was such a neat alternative to florals and created a romantic yet eccentric atmosphere.  We loved collaborating with this creative couple who put a unique “spin” on a traditional concept.

I love this stunning color combination of navy blue and fuchsia.  Just a touch of the accent color can really make the cake come to life.  This cake gets it’s modern look from combining different height tiers with varying patterns.

I am so excited to finally be able to talk about our experience on Food Network Challenge.  So much goes on behind the scenes in order to put together a show like this.  The viewer really only gets a snippet of what actually happens.  Here is my abbreviated version (or not so abbreviated version)!

I got the call from Challenge on February 8 that I had been selected as one of the lead competitors on Roller Derby Cakes.  I don’t think I have screamed like that since I was a little girl.  I remember jumping up and down and smiling from ear to ear for days.  And then I went into planning mode.  My assistant, Adele and I spent countless hours researching Roller Derby and the Denver Roller Dolls.  We attended practices and bouts to get a feel for what the sport was all about and sketched several cake concepts trying to plan as best we could knowing we would likely be thrown some sort of surprise the day of the show.  We honestly didn’t know which team we would be assigned. So we planned four different cakes.

The morning of our taping was a beautiful spring Colorado day.  Well I wasn’t certain what kind of day it would actually be, because  I was up at 3am to get hair and makeup done before arriving at the studio at 4:30am.  I cannot thank Rachael with Girls and Curls enough for the wonderful job she did.  And for doing my hair and makeup three days in a row!  She is so fabulous!

They started with taping intros, assigned us our derby team, and then we were off to the skating rink.  I first thought was “are you kidding me, I’m here to make cake,” but it was fun to put skates on and make a fool of myself.  The down side was I expended extra energy I didn’t have.  I had gotten sick two days before Challenge and was heavily medicated to keep the sniffles to a minimum during taping.  I came off the rink feeling exhausted and we hadn’t even started making the cake yet.  Check out my cool Roller Derby socks.  Now that’s spirit.

Once we got back to the studio around 10:30am, the real Challenge began.  My nerves were racing and I was worried the camera would bother me.  The clock started, I carved my first cake, and the nerves were gone.  Cake has such a calming effect on me.  I was in my comfort zone and I was too busy to notice the cameras.

It wasn’t until Kerry entered my kitchen to tell me my first helmet wasn’t perfect, that I remembered I was competing on national television.  My heart sank and then I regrouped and decided to make it my mission to finish my cake as perfectly as I could (under the circumstances, of course).   Thankfully I totally recovered on subsequent helmets and on the other two tiers- recovered so much so that Kerry came over specifically to compliment my fondant job, and during face the judges, Keegan told me it was probably the cleanest, if not the second cleanest fondant work he had ever before seen on Challenge which was music to my ears, of course.  Kerry even gave me some pointers after the show.  Thanks Kerry!

Adele was working tediously on all the details of our cake from poured sugar wheels and mouth guards to gum paste whistles and logos.  I thought she did a fantastic job and certainly could not have made that cake without her expertise.  I thought most everything went smoothly for her until in my post show interview, when I was told she was saying prayers over her sugar work.  I snickered a little remembering I had asked her if she said a prayer after recasting the wheels a few times.  I felt so comfortable having her work beside me, knowing that she would put her heart and soul into that cake just as much as I would.  Thanks for making me proud Adele!

For the most part our day went according to plan, we starting getting behind about half way through.  I was doing things Adele had planned on doing and Adele was doing things I had planned on doing, but that’s what teamwork is about.  We worked so well together, despite the fact that we had never worked in the same kitchen before Challenge.  Fortunately we were able to have fun and laugh a little too.

As the end of our eight hours were approaching, I was getting worried we wouldn’t get all of the elements on our cake.  According to my mom, sister, and two friends in the audience, the judges didn’t think we would finish at all.  Those comments from the judges apparently started early in the day.  Thank goodness we finished.  I remember looking at the clock with only 10 seconds left and trying to climb a ladder to place the Roller Dolls Logo on top without breaking it.  My hands were shaking so bad and I couldn’t wait to finish.  And then they called time.  For the first time that day I had a chance to actually look at what we had created.  Seven individual cakes fully carved and covered in fondant.  All decorated with realistic derby items.  Oh and the center tier with the three helmets spun!  Yeah that’s right they spun, just like the winning cake!  That’s the only part about the show that I am disappointed about…  they didn’t show our cake spinning!  And if you’re wondering what all the stuff was under the skate… the wheels were supposed to turn too.  Except that we had so much trouble attaching the wheels, that they slid down on the axis and adhered to the board, therefore not allowing them to spin.  Bummer!  That could have put us on top.

Face the judges wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  All three judges had lots of positive comments about our cake.  I wish they could have aired more of that stuff.  They were very impressed with our cake, our teamwork, showmanship, and with the amount of homework we did.  After standing there for what seemed like an eternity, I walked away with a feeling of hope.  Maybe a newbie could win.  Well, we may not have won, but we made an awesome cake.  No hard feelings, I’ll take “too perfect” any day!  I’m so proud of the cake Adele and I put together.  It most certainly was a race to the finish to get all the key elements on the cake, but it was a lot of fun doing it.  As we were waiting to move our cake, I asked Adele if she was ready to do it all over again… She looked at me like I was insane and said “you know how people tell husbands it’s not good to ask the wife if she wants another baby while she is still in the delivery room after having the first?? Yeah, it’s like that.  You may want to wait a few months to ask me that question.”  Well just a few days later she said she would do it again.

I enjoyed competing against James Roselle, Jason Ellis, and Eve Samonsky.  They are wonderful sugar artists and I’m honored to have met them.  Everyone created some really amazing cakes! (Jason’s assistant Joshua is in the photo.)

So you’d think that Challenge would be enough drama on it’s own, but there was more… We had to load up all of our things that night in 8+ inches of snow and slush!  It was difficult driving to the hotel, we couldn’t see any of the street signs and when we finally arrived, our hotel had no power!  Which meant no hot shower either.  Fortunately, the hotel was prepared with flashlights and a hot bowls of chicken noodle soup.  Thank goodness because my voice was totally gone aside from a squeaky noise that sounded much like a young boy going through puberty. It took three days of nursing it back to life with hot tea and honey.

A few last thank you’s…

Thanks to Cal with All Digital Photo and Video for taking head shots and making my audition video,

Thanks to the women of the Denver Roller Dolls for sharing your experiences with us,

Thanks to Rachael with Girls and Curls for my beautiful hair and makeup,

Thanks to Kevin McLanahan for making our stand,

Thanks to the fantastic staff at High Noon and Food Network,

Thanks to Adele for sharing your knowledge of sugar with me and for being my awesome sidekick,

Thanks to my wonderful family for helping take care of Tyler while I was busy with Challenge,

And a huge thank you to my loving husband John for supporting me and my dream!  I couldn’t have done it without you.

Here are some shots of our cake…

The Denver Roller Dolls Logo was cut out of gumpaste and then stenciled with black royal icing.   Adele did a fantastic job using our hand cut stencil!  This was placed on the Jammer helmet (the person who score the points in Roller Derby.)

Our referee tier was dedicated to the coach of the Bruising Altitude “Scott Free”.  This tier included a ref shirt, whistle, and dangling fish net stockings made from sugar veil.

I don’t have a great shot of the center tier of three helmets representing the “Pack”.  This was one of the coolest parts of our cake.  It actually rotated, but that did not make the cut for the show.  Not sure why.  Thank you Kevin McLanahan for putting so much effort into building our stand.  It was awesome!

Below that was our gym bag filled with poured sugar mouth guards and gumpaste wrist guards.  Both Keegan and Dump Truck said they thought the pieces looked so real they could just pop the guards in their mouths.

Our bottom tier represented the Pivot (The person who paces the pack).  Here we added the team logo and paid tribute to their undefeated season using red lipstick.

And lastly our skate, which we put together in less than an hour.  This was the last component of the cake we worked on.  It could use a little more detail.  We were super excited about our wheels that were casted out of sugar with LED lights embedded in the sugar.  We had a few issues attaching the wheels and in the process somehow broke the mechanics that would have made these wheels turn just like a skate.

In the end we did not win, but received several compliments from the judges including that is was “too perfect.”  I am really proud of Adele and I’s first cake on Challenge.  We’ll get them next time!